Game Of Thrones Ending: Predicting What The Books Will (& Won't) Change

3. Tyrion As Hand & The Small Council

With Bran named King, he assembles a Small Council consisting of a bunch of fan-favourites, all of which makes up a motley crew of broken things that will likely lead the realm into ruin. Tyrion becomes Hand of the King, while Bronn gets Master of Coin, Davos is Master of Ships, Sam's the Grand Maester, and Brienne is Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, with Masters of Laws, War, and Whisperers all vacant positions. Like with a lot of these endings, some of this makes sense, and some doesn't.

Let's start with Tyrion. As it stands, his trajectory in the books is very different in the show: less so in terms of plot, but more in terms of actual character. While the show has presented us with quite a nice version of the character - even his murder of Shae is framed in about as justified a light as possible - in the books he's been on a slippery slope for a while now. Killing Shae is a more brutal act, he leaves Westeros hating Jaime as much as anyone else in his family, and he has a burning desire for vengeance that is leading him into darkness. Plot-wise, he'll still go to Dany's side and serve there, but he'll likely be encouraging her attack of King's Landing, not wanting her to stop when it surrenders. She's his chance of revenge, not a better world.

Still, Martin loves Tyrion, and will likely bring him back round by the end. Indeed, him seeing the dead bodies of his siblings, who he thinks he wants dead, and realising he is the last Lannister alive could well be the sort of sobering moment he needs to turn away from that darkness. After that, and the fight with the Others, him having to serve as Hand of the King would work.

Bronn is a character the showrunners kept around because of his popularity in the TV series, and his story is mostly done so far in the books. He could come back into things, but it's hard to imagine him earning a place on the Small Council. Brienne as Lord Commander, on the other hand, definitely fits, especially as she's this generation's Ser Duncan the Tall.

Sam as the Maester - maybe not called Grand Maester just yet though - works, since he's currently in Oldtown (although with a lot more TBC with that storyline), plus he and Bran have a connection too, and Davos could well become Master of Ships because, well, he won't have much else to do, but there are plenty of things that could happen to his character before that point for it not to happen.